In this week’s Jen’s Jewels, I’m featuring PINKY SWEAR by Danielle Girard, a riveting thriller about a woman whose surrogate vanishes just days before her baby is due. If you’re craving a compulsively suspenseful read that will keep you turning pages long past bedtime, this one absolutely delivers.
LIGHTNING ROUND
In three words, describe the vibe of your book.
Intimate, haunting, emotional.
What’s your ideal writing fuel: coffee, tea, wine, or chaos?
Black coffee, side of chaos.
Plotter, pantser, or “organized mess”?
An organized mess - I write a draft without a road map and then (hopefully!) revise my way into clarity.
If your book had a theme song, what would it be?
Ha. Maybe something like I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. This book went through a lot of iterations.
What time of day does your creativity peak?
I used to be a night owl. I’d start after the kids were in bed and write until the wee hours. These days, I love to write from about 10 am to 4 pm. I’d say those first two or three hours are peak performance, but sometimes I still surprise myself with a late-night session.
THE DEEP DIVE
Every book has an origin story. What was the “lightning strike” moment that made you say, “I have to write this”?
There’s a scene in the book that was stuck in my head for a long time. Once you’ve read the book, you’ll know which scene I mean. The first iteration of PINKY SWEAR was a manuscript called The Surrogate. In that version, there was a detective and the other main character was the surrogate rather than the biological mother and as I was writing it, I felt like something didn’t work, but I couldn’t figure out why not. Well, once I’d written 100,000 words, it was very obvious that the point of view character needs to be the one with the highest stakes, which is the biological parent. It’s her baby, so she has the most to lose.
I started over with the question: What is the most terrifying thing that could happen if you’re an expectant mother, your best friend is your surrogate, and she disappears four days before the baby is due?
Lexi, the protagonist, has been diagnosed with idiopathic infertility, which basically means, for some unknown reason, she either can’t get pregnant or can’t maintain a pregnancy. When the book opens, Lexi believes she’ll never have a child. Then her childhood best friend comes back into her life, having left an abusive marriage, and agrees to be her surrogate. The story then evolved from the question of what could go wrong.
Tell me about a scene you rewrote multiple times. What made it so tricky, and how did you finally crack it?
In all honestly, most of the scenes were written more than once, but a particularly difficult one was the first time you meet Mara and Lexi together in the current day because that scene had to accomplish so much. We have to see all of their history, their shared love on those pages but we also have to sense that there is distance between them even if the characters don’t recognize it. The necessary subtlety of that was tricky to accomplish.
Your protagonist: Did they arrive fully formed, or did you have to excavate them layer by layer? What surprised you most about who they became?
She emerged slowly over that first draft, layer by layer. What surprised me most was her resilience - not in a dramatic, cinematic way, but in the quiet determination to keep going without knowing what the outcome will be. I’m increasingly drawn to ordinary women pushed into extraordinary emotional terrain, and I think Lexi is a reflection of that. For that matter, I think all three women are reflections of that.
What theme or question haunted you while writing this book? Did you find an answer, or are you still sitting with the mystery of it?
The story kept circling the question of whether love can survive betrayal or if it simply transforms into something else. I’m not sure there is a clean answer, and I don’t believe the story offers one. Instead, it sits in that uncomfortable gray space where trust, grief, and love coexist.
THE PERSONAL TOUCH
I love hearing about authors’ reading lives. What’s at the top of your TBR pile right now, and what made you add it?
I just finished Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. I loved her book Once There Were Wolves so I was really excited to hear she had a new one out. I’ve got the books of some really good friends up next in my TBR: Strangers in the Villa by Robyn Harding and The Future Saints by Ashley Winstead and I’ve got Theo of Golden, too, because I’ve heard so many great things about it.
Share a behind-the-scenes detail that readers would never guess about this book - maybe a weird research rabbit holes a strange inspiration, or a scene that came from real life.
Without offering any spoilers, I can say I watched a lot of videos that the main character, Lexi, finds herself watching - you’ll know what I mean when you read it.
February is the month of love and connection. What’s your relationship with your writing practice - is it a passionate romance, a comfortable partnership, or something that requires constant wooing?
Ha. I love this question. I guess it’s a passionate romance interrupted by some high drama conflict and the occasional knock-down-drag-out fights. I love the writing practice… except for the days when I hate it.
If you could have dinner with one of your characters (or boot one out of the book entirely), who would it be and why?
I’d love to sit down with Cate, especially if she knew how the books ends and ask her to reflect on the decisions she made and whether she’d do anything differently. She’s the third girl in the close-knit trio who dies while they’re in high school (this isn’t a spoiler) and I’d love to talk to her about what she thinks her life would have been if she’d lived.
LOOKING AHEAD
Without spoiling anything, can you give us a tiny peek at what you’re working on next? Even just the vibe or the question you’re exploring?
I’m working on a very personal thriller called HAPPY ENDING about a woman who discovers her husband’s long affair.
What’s the best way for readers to stay in touch and follow your literary adventures? (Website, social media, newsletter, carrier pigeon…)
I really LOVE to hear from readers. I’m most active on Instagram but folks can also find me on Facebook and they can always reach me through my website.
BONUS: The Author’s Playlist
“Mother” by Brandi Carlile
“Liability” by Lorde
“Bigger than the Whole Sky” Taylor Swift
“Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield
Thank you so much for sharing your insights and creativity. I can’t wait for readers to discover PINKY SWEAR. Happy writing!
Narrator: Rebekkah Ross, Amanda Dolan
From Danielle Girard, the USA TODAY bestselling author who “effortlessly ratchets up the tension” (J.T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author), comes a pulse-pounding thriller about a young woman whose surrogate disappears just days before the baby’s due date, leading to a frantic search that uncovers dark truths and the power of a mother’s love.
Lexi thought she knew everything about Mara Vannatta. Best friends since middle school, they drifted apart after a tragedy derailed their senior year. But when Mara shows up on Lexi’s doorstep sixteen years later fleeing an abusive husband, Lexi takes her in without question. Lexi’s own marriage has been strained by her desire to have a baby, and when Mara offers to become her surrogate, their friendship feels stronger than ever.
But four days before the due date, Mara disappears.
Lexi is shocked but certain there must be something wrong—Mara would never willingly leave with her unborn child. Or would she? As she embarks on a perilous cross-country hunt for the truth, Lexi is forced to reconsider a friendship she thought she knew—and what really happened that terrible night their senior year. How many secrets lie in their shared past, waiting to be uncovered? And just how far will Lexi go to bring her child safely home?
Thriller Domestic [ Atria/Emily Bestler Books, On Sale: February 24, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781668096529 / eISBN: 9781668096512 ]
Danielle Girard is the USA Today and Amazon #1 bestselling author of sixteen novels, including the Annabelle Schwartzman Series, Chasing Darkness, and The Rookie Club series. Her books have won the Barry Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award, and White Out was in the top 100 bestselling e-books of 2020. In addition, two of her titles have been optioned for screen.
Danielle is also the creator and host of the Killer Women Podcast where she interviews the women who write today's best crime fiction. A graduate of Cornell University, Danielle received her MFA in Creative Writing at Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina. When she's not traveling, Danielle lives in the mountains of Montana.
Jennifer Vido is the author of The Gull Island Series, sweet Lowcountry romances inspired by her love of coastal living and small-town charm. Serendipity by the Sea won Best First Book from the New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf Contest, and Baltimore Magazine readers named her Best Local Author in 2024 and 2025.
A Vanderbilt graduate, Jennifer traded in teaching French to follow her dream of becoming an author. She loves discovering and sharing literary gems through her Jen's Jewels column, celebrating the books that make her heart happy.
Jennifer lives in Maryland with her husband and is mom to two grown sons. Her rescue dog, Fripp, is her constant companion, though he's better at napping than editing. When she's not writing, you'll find her at the beach with her toes in the sand, dreaming about her next romance.
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